Friday, July 12, 2013

Completing a Beautiful Book

The climax of the story has already occurred. Claire, who is the last one of our children at home, has graduated from Czech school and is about to head to the States for a whole new story of her life.

Dave and I soon begin a new story of our lives too, with all our kids living in the States by August, and us continuing our ministry with Josiah Venture.

So we're just adding a few more details, the finishing touches, before we end this part of our Patty family book and story.

How many times have I dropped off Claire at this gate? I can't even begin to count!

I've watched her walk down these paving stones to enter the home of her tutor for years.

It was 2002 when Caleb was ill for six months and couldn't attend third grade. In order to pass and go on to fourth grade, he needed a tutor. God provided. And not just for those months.

But for eleven years!

It's one of those parts of the Patty family story that certainly was not pleasant at the time. But that brought good gifts to us for years to come.

Jirka was one of those precious gifts. And an amazing tutor! He spent countless hours over the years working through chemistry, biology, physics, math, history, Czech...and life. He heard about their lives, their friends, their activities, their ups and downs. And they heard about his!

He's a gifted teacher and stopped at nothing to help them get what they needed in order to be successful at school. Even if it meant writing something on his table in his tutoring room! That's Jirka pointing to some obscure history date that she wrote there to help her remember. She's left her mark on his table.

And he left his mark on our lives!

We will forever be grateful to the Lord for bringing Jirka into our lives, and for the huge investment he made in our kids - an investment that helped them to navigate all of their school years in a second language.

We've got just 35 days left before Claire flies to Chicago. Thirty five days to put the finishing touches on a beautiful book of our family's lives.

I thought I would be incredibly sad as we wound up this portion of our lives...of the book of a family of five living and serving in the Czech Republic.

Instead, I find myself incredibly grateful.

Grateful for each and every detail (like an awesome tutor!) that God gave us to enrich our lives as a family, and give us such a good story for the past 26 years. This book is ending well!

And I'm sure the next book, with more chapters of our lives, will be full of wonderful details that display a good God who is overseeing it all.

I write Living By Lysa from my window's view of Lysa hora in the Beskydy mountains, to capture our life and ministry in the Czech Republic. We serve here with Josiah Venture, an organization passionate about sharing Jesus with the next generation, and training young leaders to make disciples in Central and Eastern Europe.

Life is made up of small details each day and those are the pieces that make our lives rich, beautiful and meaningful. I enjoy noticing and writing about those details.